


Captain Proton and the Pirates of Planet X

by greg-powells-mustache (GregPowellsMustache)



Series: Captain Proton and the Danger Patrol! [4]
Category: Captain Proton (Star Trek) - Fandom, Star Trek: Voyager
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-04
Updated: 2020-07-15
Packaged: 2021-02-27 15:07:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 12,851
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22109086
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GregPowellsMustache/pseuds/greg-powells-mustache
Summary: Captain Proton and friends arrive on Planet X -- hoping to find answers regarding the robot duplicate on Earth. To do so, they must retrieve information from the remains of the Fortress of Doom... but the planet's new rulers don't plan to make this easy for them.
Series: Captain Proton and the Danger Patrol! [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1465591
Comments: 21
Kudos: 5





	1. Chapter 1

**PERSONAL LOG, DAY 22.**

**[BEGIN RECORDING]**

And here we are. After three weeks, we’re finally in orbit over Planet X. I’ve never been so happy to see it -- except maybe when I came back from taking my final exams.

We’re making preparations for landing now. There’s a lot to wrap up, so we won’t get down to the surface until tomorrow. I didn’t have much to do, so my part’s done, and everyone else has made it very clear that they don’t need my help.

At least they’ve been nice about it.

So I’m thinking that instead of being bored up here, I should go down ahead of everyone else and scope things out. I haven’t been in this sector for a while, and things have probably changed over the past seven years or so.

**[PAUSE]**

I thought about coming back, after I quit. Figured I’d help fix things, stick around a while. Why not go back home, right? But I never did; every time I thought about it, I found a new excuse to stay put

It was Spark, at first. After all, they couldn’t handle this on their own... But the thing is, Spark was at the landing -- the _last_ one, I mean. The PDF had kept the whole thing pretty quiet until we got back, and the first thing I did was pull Spark aside, and tell them what happened.

They weren’t angry. They weren’t even _sad._ And I realized then that they’d accepted it a long time ago; they’d been dealing with the reality of it since they were twelve, without anybody to help them process it.

I’ll never repeat what they said, when I told them. But I’ll never forget it, either -- because I deserved it. Six years of saving the Galaxy, and I’d never stopped to think about the promises I was breaking.

And then Altair showed up, and that... That was its own mess, and nobody knew what to do. I stuck around long enough to help get things sorted out, and then I took off again -- still not for home, though.

Avoidance and guilt. That’s why I never went back.

Wow. Dr. Neumann’s gonna have a field day with this, isn’t she? But then again, she’ll just be glad I’m actually keeping these logs. She says it’ll help me to look back in a few years and see progress.

Well, I’m looking back right now, and I don’t think I recognize the kid who hated this planet the second he came within viewing range... or the guy who came back to save it.

**[END RECORDING]**

“You are not going down there alone. You know better than that – remember last time?”

“Yeah, Con, I remember.” As I said it, I reached for that scar -- I’ve got a lot of them, but this is the only one that I can tell you the day it happened. Still hurts, sometimes.

“Why are you even thinking about it?” she whispered, under the drone of the calculating machines, plotting our descent. “What aren’t you telling me?”

I wanted to tell her, I swear I did. But I couldn’t make myself force out the words. We were friends, of course; I trusted Buster and Constance unconditionally, and I knew they trusted me just as much. But there were so many things I’d never told them about myself. Not because I didn’t want to, but because I just didn’t know how. They’d never pushed it, when they’d asked, and some things, they’d never asked about at all.

I used to be thankful for that. But once in a while, I kind of wish they had.

“Let me guess… It’s just _one of those things.”_ She smiled a little, but I’ll never forget the way she looked at me. Something sad and contemplative, as she turned toward the imagizer -- Planet X spread out below us. “What are you so afraid of, Cap? What could we ever learn that would change the way we think of you?”

“I think you’ve managed to get all of the secrets out of me, Con.”

“All of the secrets you’re willing to give up, you mean.” She thought about that for a while. “Where are you gonna go, when you get down there?”

“Depends on what’s still standing, I guess -- and who I can find that still owes me a favor. But I’m gonna start with the library, try to find Rae Roman. She’s always made it her business to know everything that goes on in the sector. And it’s been a while; might be good to catch up. Haven’t seen her since… Well. Y’know.”

“Yeah, since the day you ran off and nearly got yourself killed. Which is why I really don’t want you going alone.”

“Who am I supposed to take with me?” I pointed out. “Everyone’s either busy, or someone who should absolutely _not_ be coming along. I _know_ this city, Con. I’m landing somewhere hidden, and it won’t even take me ten minutes to get there."

“…Fair enough.” Constance sighed. “Just be careful, alright? Radio up here every so often?”

“Yeah. Of course.” And then, I had an idea. “Y’know, there _is_ someone who could come along to keep me out of trouble…”


	2. Chapter 2

The trip down in the shuttle was uncharacteristically quiet for most of the way. I tried to initiate conversation a few times, but it didn't go anywhere, so I eventually gave up.

After about an hour, I decided to try again. "Hey, is something wrong?"

"No. Matrix algebra is just _super_ interesting." Spark closed their textbook with a sigh. I'd kind of figured that they weren't really getting anywhere with studying, not with what they were probably trying not to think about. "So. The _Fortress of Doom,_ huh?"

_There it is._ "Yup."

"What's it like?"

"Big," I answered -- and immediately felt something... close to guilt. Not quite, but close. "Absurdly big, and easy to get lost in."

"Not so different from home then. The amount of times I've heard Dad complain about how small his workspace is in the apartment... I know you said that he didn't remember anything, but something in him must've missed it, after the Stygians wrecked the place." I must have tipped them off, somehow -- maybe I flinched a bit, I don't know. "I _knew_ it wasn't halfway across the sector. Station Zero _wasn't_ destroyed. It just became the Fortress of Doom."

I nodded slowly.

"Guess that's the same thing, in some ways. So you and Dad both decided to keep that from me, huh? I'd say I can't believe it, but then we'd _all_ be liars." Spark let out one of those long frustrated noises, something you'd call a sigh if it didn't sound like solar rays cutting through subetheric radio static. "How much of it was true, then?"

"Most of it. The important stuff. He really didn't remember _anything,_ Spark -- and whatever the Stygians did to him... I couldn't do anything to help."

That was as close to the truth as I was willing to get. Not because they didn't deserve to know -- of _course_ they did. But I _had_ promised Altair that I'd take care of them, all those years ago -- and look, as much as I'd screwed that up and hurt them in the process? That was _nothing_ compared to what laying out the entire truth would've done to them.

"I know that look. You're not gonna give me a straight answer."

"I don't know if I can," I admitted. "There's a lot I'm _still_ trying to figure out. And whatever I didn't tell you, I..."

"There was probably a reason for it," Spark finished. "I know."

"Well... look." It took me a few seconds to find the right words; things I didn't want to admit, even to myself. "A couple of weeks before we left, you said you needed to see what happened for yourself. I should've told you about what happened to Station Zero. You were gonna find out eventually, and it isn't my job to decide what you should and shouldn't know."

"Wow." They blinked a few times. "Looks like therapy's been good for you."

"Yeah. Learning a lot about myself, y'know? And figuring out what I can work on. How I can do better."

"Me too."

I raised an eyebrow at that, but didn't say anything.

"I started talking to somebody again, not too long after Dad came back," Spark explained. "Realized that I was angry about a lot of stuff. Thought I was angry at you -- but I'm not. You did the best you could. And things are okay now, even if it's gonna get a lot more difficult soon."

"It's not going to be easy, that's for sure." I paused, thinking carefully about my next words. "Here, take over for a bit. We'll get it on paper, you can log it as flight hours. You could use a break from your homework."

"Sure. It's been a while."

"It'll be easy," I assured them. "Shuttles fly _really_ smoothly in this atmosphere -- just remember, you're used to flying over Earth, so try not to overcompensate. Smaller adjustments."

"That... That's not what I meant." They glanced over at me, blue eyes sharp under their faded mop of hair -- the Academy commandant would've had a _lot_ to say about Spark's appearance over those couple of weeks. "We haven't gone flying together in a really long time. And I missed it."

"I missed it too. I wish I'd been able to teach you -- somebody else got to do that."

"Are you kidding? You _did._ You were bringing me up here when I was five years old." Spark smiled faintly. "Flying up here's one of the first things I remember, actually."

"Guess I never thought of it like that." And I hadn't; it had really just been quick runs, a few orbits to clear my head and give Altair a little while to work without a toddler constantly trying to get into things and push all the shiny buttons.

"Y'know, when I was a kid, I didn't realize how lucky I was," they said quietly. "I mean, sure, everything _sucked._ I missed you, I missed Dad, but I could deal with that, eventually. But I went into that school with a lot of things the PDF kids didn't have."

"You _were_ a PDF kid. That's why you were there in the first place."

"Well, sure, but... they were all _proper_ PDF kids, y'know. Their parents were all senior officers on whatever ships, and some of them were so _afraid_ of the teachers. Didn't figure out why until I met Asher Park's mom. Kinda realized how much more room I'd been given, emotionally. Most of them -- most of _us,_ I mean -- we don't get that."

They must have known what I was thinking about... not that it was hard for them to guess.

"I met your dad last year," they went on. "I was surprised that he knew who I was. He asked about you. I didn't tell him much. Wasn't much to tell."

"That's because I went to see him, a couple months after we got to Earth. Thought we'd try to fix things, but... well. Some things don't change." I tried not to sound too bitter about it, but it's hard not to be, even these days. "What did he ask?"

"Oh, I dunno. What you'd been doing since you left the PDF. Asked about how Dad was doing, too, but he could've just asked Aunt Nora. I think I get why I've only met him once. Used to think you were exaggerating."

"About what?" I asked -- but I had a good idea of what they meant.

They seemed pretty far away for a while, even though it couldn't have been more than a few seconds before they spoke again. I can't really describe the emotion in their voice -- but if you've been through anything like we have, maybe I don't have to.

"He really _does_ have a way of making you feel small, if you'll let him. But I looked him in the eye and _smiled._ Because whatever he's heard about me, he must have known that I wasn't gonna be intimidated -- and that we have _very_ different ideas about what makes a good PDF officer."

"Nothing scares you off, huh?" I laughed. "I'd be worried for the PDF at large, if I didn't think they could use a bit of hell-raising."

"Learned from the best. --So, okay, when I take this thing down, do I gotta..."

I pretended I hadn't heard that -- mostly so I didn't get punched for teasing them about it. "It's not _too_ much different from landing on Earth -- it's just the differences in the upper atmosphere you gotta watch. And on the way down, we've obviously gotta look out for the lizards --"


	3. Chapter 3

There's something about Atomic City that everyone always seems to forget to mention -- more often than not, there's rain on the way. And even here, under the wide-leafed trees, the imagizer showed fog around the shuttle.

"Guess it's a good thing we planned ahead," Spark muttered. They zipped up their flight jacket, then spent a minute looking for their bag (which, as is to be expected, was already over their shoulder). "Okay. Ready."

I _swear_ I tried not to laugh, but look -- this has _always_ been a thing, and I've known this kid since they were four. It was funny back then, it is now, and I'll probably find it hilarious for the rest of my life. "You forgot something. Can't have you getting sick. Your dad would kill me."

They caught the hat and gloves I tossed at them with a surprising amount of ease -- must have been that slight gravitational difference. There's no other possible explanation.

Spark glanced around the clearing as they followed me out of the shuttle. "I think I recognize this place."

"Well, I hope so. This is where we used to land when we worked on the ship, remember?"

They mumbled something I couldn't quite hear over the wet grass. That's another thing people forget to talk about -- it's thicker than most Earth grass, sort of... springy. And if you're walking through anything over a couple of inches, you're gonna hear it.

"What'd you say?"

"I said that holding the toolbox and getting in the way doesn't count."

"You were never in the way, kiddo." I exhaled slowly, a trail of mist evaporating in the morning air. "I always forget how much I miss it here."

"Really?" They tilted their head slightly, squinting up through the trees. "I figured you'd never want to be here again."

"That's what I think, every time I land here. But I've always been wrong -- ever since day one. Every place where I ever felt at home... they're all somewhere on this planet."

"Me too. Well, Station Zero, the library, and..."

I raised an eyebrow as they trailed off. "And the apartment?"

"Sure, but I was thinking about the _Firebrand._ Spent enough time in it as a kid. And the last few weeks..." Spark pointed up ahead, a break in the trees, Atomic City visible through the mist. "Just a few minutes to Rae's from there, yeah?"

"Yup. Not even, if we landed in the right spot."

Atomic City's never been very big, or so I've heard, anyway. By the time I got there, the only PDF project left was the one they had the most doubts about -- everyone else in town had either grown up there, or had quit the PDF to stay. When I left, there weren't that many of us. Even less, after the Stygians levelled half the town.

But this was _too_ quiet. There wasn't a single person in sight. Nothing looked abandoned or broken down; it was like everyone had just gotten up and left.

"Where is everybody?" Spark whispered.

"...Good question."

We continued on in silence, wet gravel crunching under our boots. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Spark wrap their jacket around themself. But I've seen that kid run around in jeans and a t-shirt at just above freezing. It wasn't the cold.

After a little while, we found ourselves out in front of the frosted glass doors -- "Atomic City Library" etched into the top. Spark tugged at the door handle, strained a bit, and grimaced. "It should be open. _Everything_ should. I don't like this."

"Me either. But maybe today's just an off day. It _is_ a weekend."

That didn't make either of us feel any better.

A clattering sound broke the silence that followed -- metallic, footsteps down the fire escape.

_"Proton?!"_

Standing out there in the cold and the fog, I looked into the eyes of a friend I hadn't seen since I was twenty-seven -- and found myself on the recieving end of a _very_ forceful hug.

"Took you long enough to come back, don't you think?"

"Too long," I said sheepishly. "I meant to come back, Rae, honest. But things just kept coming up."

"Oh, I'm sure. You can't stay out of trouble. --Who'd you bring with you?"

"Spark, if you'd believe it."

"No kidding!" Her grin was a mile wide -- but then it dissolved into the mist, her eyes anxiously sweeping the city around us.

No, _anxious_ isn't a good way to describe it; it's not the whole picture. It's not about an immediate threat, or even something you can name. It's a way of thinking. Sort of detached, something you learn over time.

_Vigilant,_ that's the word.

Not that I blame her for it. She's spent nearly her whole life looking over her shoulder. I could tell that this was different, somehow -- but God help me, I couldn't imagine anything worse than what she'd already been through.

"Let's get you both inside," Rae said. "The patrols are due soon."

Spark shot me a worried glance as we followed her around the back, an unspoken question.

"...The what?"

She didn't answer.

About halfway up the steps, I reached for the key -- seven years isn't long enough to break that particular habit, I guess. Sure enough, it was still there, buttoned into my jacket lining.

_I wonder whether she changed the locks._

The door opened with a familiar _clunk,_ then that obnoxious squeak that I never _could_ get to go away -- and I couldn't help but smile a little.

"Let's just say that things around here aren't great," she said finally. "It's been a long couple of years... and we need you more than ever."


	4. Chapter 4

As soon as the door closed behind us, Rae immediately looked a hundred times more relaxed. More like _herself,_ really -- although her hair wasn't as light as I remembered, and neither was her smile. "There we go."

"Okay, can we start with why there's literally _nobody_ outside?" Spark asked, wiping the condensation from their jacket.

"You don't know?" she whispered. "But then why are you here?"

The next few seconds stretched out, a million thoughts jamming themselves into my head at once. I hadn't wanted to think about it. Maybe the silence in the streets was a fluke, there _had_ to be a reasonable explanation for it... But the look on Rae's face told me that I wasn't going to find one.

"It's a long story," I said, "but it isn't important right now. Tell me what happened, Rae."

She looked around the apartment -- something didn't feel right about it. Rae's apartment isn't _huge_ to begin with; it's a couple of rooms on the top floor of the library. Up until then, I'd thought of it as cozy -- but now, it was too cramped, somehow. And as I watched her, I realized that the blinds were all closed; she was checking to make sure of that.

She hadn't done that, the last time I saw her.

"The city was taken over by pirates," she said finally. "There's a curfew in effect -- nobody goes anywhere on the weekends, strictly during business hours the rest of the week. They've started shutting some of the shops down; I haven't seen some of my friends in months. Rumor has it they've been drafted, and..." She shook her head, blinking back tears.

"Oh. Wow." Spark was trying to process this, I could tell -- but they had that look that said they were stuck on something, scrunched and uncertain. "How long ago did they show up?"

I nodded in resignation -- I'd been having the same thought. "I'm gonna take a wild guess here and say it was probably about a year and a half ago."

"...Yeah." Rae shifted uncomfortably. There was an edge to her voice, not _quite_ suspicion, but close. "If you didn't know about the pirates, then... how could you know that?"

I couldn't say anything to that. Not because I didn't have anything to say -- I _did,_ plenty of things. I've only experienced it a few times in my life, this total inability to translate emotions into thoughts, and thoughts into words. There was nothing to do but sit with the reality of it.

"That's, uh, part of the long story," Spark said with a shrug. "Think we should hear the rest of this first."

"There isn't much to tell. They're taking our resources, using us to fix their ships. There isn't much we could do to stop them -- and when they're done with us, I'm not sure there'll be anything left."

"A year and a half is a long time for a group of pirates to stick around," Spark mused. "What do you think's keeping them?"

"I don't know, but I have a few ideas." Rae smiled grimly. "From what I know, the pirates set themselves up in the old station. My guess is that there's some devices in there they'd _kill_ for -- if they can get any of 'em to work."

"They're in the Fortress of Doom. That's gonna be a problem." Spark had caught her careful phrasing -- if they hadn't, I might have missed it. They smiled wryly at her surprise. "Subtle. I appreciate the effort, but, uh... I know what happened."

They looked at me sideways then, as if to say, _"you're gonna have to tell her at some point."_

_Well, not until I have to._

"Yeah, that's gonna throw a wrench in our plan for sure." I tried to laugh it off then, hoping that maybe I could stop the shakiness that had crept into my voice, hold it together somehow. Of _course_ this had happened then. I should've expected someone else to come in and fill the power vacuum. But I hadn't. I'd run off to Mars, and left the city all but defenseless.

I was _pissed_ \-- at the pirates, at the universe, and at myself.

But this wasn't the time or place to lose control.

"You're here to go to the Fortress of Doom." There was no question in it, or in Rae's glare. "You can't be serious."

I nodded, still not really trusting myself to speak.

"Why the _hell,_ Proton? You disappear for _years,_ and when you finally come back, it's for that? You didn't even tell anyone that you --"

She was cut off by the crackle of my pocket radio. _"Kincaid to Proton, do you read?"_

"Yeah, Buster, I'm here." I swore under my breath -- I'd forgotten to call in, and that _never_ happened. Buster and Constance were probably starting to get worried.

_"Everything alright?"_

"We're okay. But we've got bad news about the city -- it's been taken over by pirates."

Buster exhaled slowly, and even over the radio, I could hear him switch into his problem-solving mode; a little flatter. _"Okay. So what's the plan?"_

"I don't know yet," I admitted. "We found Rae, she told us what's going on. I think she's gonna be our best resource for figuring out our next steps."

_"And in the meantime...?"_

I glanced over at Rae. "Do you think it's safe for the ship to come down?"

She thought about it for a few moments. "If it's near where you brought the shuttle down, sure. Bigger ships than yours fly over the city all the time."

I picked up the radio again. "Bring the ship down. Coordinates are already programmed in, and I think the trajectory should be just about calculated by now."

 _"Got it. We're just waiting on the computer core; I'm hearing a couple of hours before it'll be locked down. We should be there by dawn."_ Buster paused. _"Not sure what's taking so long, honestly. It's just a rock that lights up."_

I laughed at that. "Pretty sure you're gonna hit some disagreement there, Buster."

_"Yeah, yeah. You ask me, they could just wrap it in a couple of towels."_

_"Towels. Really, if I didn't know better, I'd think you were just trying to antagonize me."_

Altair's tone was entirely cheerful -- there was no way he could've known that on the planet below, time was slowing to a crawl.

"...No." The color had drained from Rae's face, and she all but _shook_ me as she grabbed me by my jacket. "You. Start talking. _Now."_


	5. Chapter 5

**PERSONAL LOG, DAY 22, SUPPLEMENTAL.**

**[BEGIN RECORDING]**

This isn't the first time that Rae's been five seconds from ripping my head off, but this was deserved. I get it. I should've told her about Altair... pretty much right away. Of course I was gonna tell her, but... there was a better way to have this conversation. I should've planned for it instead of avoiding it and leaving it to chance.

It's been at least an hour. She's still down in the library. I should go check on her, but I'm probably the last person she wants to see or talk to right now...

No, second-to-last. Definitely second-to-last.

**[END RECORDING]**

This should be the part where I tell you that I went down to the library and found Rae sitting in one of the chairs -- that after a little while, she talked to me, and I apologized, and even if things weren't okay, they were better. But it's not, because I didn't do that.

Spark went to bed, in the spare room, and I probably would've, if I thought I could get any sleep. But I knew better, so I just stayed up and... waited. Rae came upstairs, eventually, after she'd gotten most of it out of her system -- the stuff she couldn't say quietly.

The stuff we talked about for the next hour or so would probably bore the hell out of you. And honestly, all I remember of it is that we both did a fair amount of crying. So I guess I'll just tell you about what happened after Rae noticed I was still wearing my jacket -- I'm actually surprised I got away with wearing it that long. Rae's always had _rules_ in the apartment, y'know, and the jacket's always been one of the big ones. _"The planet isn't gonna fall apart just because you take a break to be an actual person,"_ she used to tell me.

"How long have you even _had_ that thing?" she asked as I came back to the sofa.

"Twelve years, and still going strong." I grinned at her. "I get asked about it sometimes. Usually the high school kids, curious about why I never wore the PDF uniform. Wondering if they could get out of it themselves, I bet."

Rae laughed a bit. "And what do you tell them?"

"I tell 'em the truth -- it was a gift from a friend, and it's my good luck charm. Sometimes, depending on the kid, I might mention that I told the PDF _just_ where they could shove that uniform."

"It's a miracle they never kicked you out, really. You made it longer than _I_ did."

"Well, I mean, I quit and moved to Mars a while ago... They just called me for this one. Guess I'm glad they did."

"Mars, huh? When did you move out there?"

"Just about once we got things figured out with Altair. It's nice out there. Small town. I fix kids' bike chains, help with their science projects. Sometimes it just feels like... home." I grinned sheepishly. "Would've stayed in, if they'd put me in the field, but they wanted me to do desk work."

"Somehow, I'm not surprised. I remember you and the doc arguing about whose turn it was to do the paperwork..."

"Yeah, and I remember _you_ not helping," I teased.

"That's because _I_ wasn't the one who got sent here as a corrective measure."

I couldn't think of anything clever to say to that... so I threw a sofa pillow at her and _ran like hell._

Cowardly? Eh, maybe. But fighting wasn't going to get me anywhere; I'd just given Rae the advantage and put myself into an impossible position. If I wanted to survive to defend the Galaxy another day, I didn't have much of a choice.

_"Oh, you little --"_

It had been a good few years since I'd been down this hallway, let alone at this speed, but muscle memory's always been my friend. I couldn't shut the door behind me -- that's against the rules -- so I grabbed a pillow from her bed and mounted a defense. Not that I had to wait long.

And _oh my God,_ was the look on her face worth it.

We stared each other down -- Rae, with indignation; me, with what I'm sure she'd describe as _that stupid grin, it's like you take pride in how infuriating you are_ \-- both of us counting down silently, hoping the other person might have lost their edge.

Well, if anyone had, it was me. All of a minute, _maybe_ a minute and a half, and I was in the loser's position, as determined by Roman _et al._ in the Pillow Fight Rulebook, Free-For-All Edition: _face-first on the mattress, preferably tackled and held into a pillow until surrender._

"Retribution!" she crowed. "Victory is mine!"

My response to that was basically muffled gibberish, and completely mangled by laughter. But it's gibberish widely considered to be _unfit for publication,_ so... Two words, fill in the blanks.

"I'm taking that as a concession." Rae nudged my shoulder, pushing me upward a little. "Scoot over."

When I eventually found the willpower to move, I was in that weird in-between phase of containment: together enough to have _thoughts_ again, but not quite enough to sit up. I settled for rolling over in an _absolutely_ undignified fashion -- not that Rae was much better, by her standards. Braid falling apart, all wild waves and static, glasses slipping down her nose...

She flopped down next to me -- took off her glasses, wiped her eyes. "I missed this."

"Aw, you missed me? You're gonna make me get all emotional, Rae..."

"No, I missed _kicking your butt at pillow fights._ Keep up."

Sometimes I think it's funny, how _this_ is what I remember the clearest from those next few days. You'd think it would be what happened later, but... nope. Not the Pirate Queen, not the lizard, not _any_ of the things that were waiting for me in the Fortress of Doom.

When I think about it, I think about the night before -- me and one of my closest friends, unable to settle down after a stupid pillow fight. You know the drill -- you look at each other and start giggling, manage to calm down, accidentally set each other off again... Repeat until nothing else in the universe matters, and you laugh each other into exhaustion.

Which we absolutely did.


	6. Chapter 6

**DAY 23.**

**[BEGIN RECORDING]**

I'm trying to be really quiet so I don't wake up Rae or Spark. It's still pretty early; the crew won't be here for a while. Must have only been asleep for a couple of hours.

Waking up here was weird -- but a good weird. I still kind of can't believe we ended up having a _pillow fight_ last night -- I mean, it _was_ my fault, and we used to do that all the time, even around the station. Just not in the library -- not after the first time. Altair wouldn't have had an issue with it; Rae was just _really_ embarrassed -- she'd probably _still_ hit me if I brought it up.

I missed it.

So, yeah... good weird. Mostly.

Because the thing is, I can see Station Zero from here.

I do this every damn time; I should be able to catch myself by now. But usually, I'm coming in from the other side of the city, so it isn't that bad. No one lives there, nothing grows there. I can shake myself out of it, and see the Fortress of Doom for what it is.

But from where I'm sitting, right now, I can see the library dome. I wonder whether the pirates left it alone. Rae doesn't think so -- she says some of Chaotica's soldiers stuck around, so the pirates have probably gotten in by now.

I don't know why I'm thinking about it; it doesn't matter. I've haven't even been in there since the Stygians showed up. It could've all been destroyed _years_ ago, for all I know. But I hope it hasn't, somehow. It'd be nice to know that _something_ that mattered to all of us survived.

**[SIGH]**

We talked about a lot, last night. It was kind of nice. Cleared the air about things. Rae doesn't think it's smart for us to go into the Fortress at all, but she's not gonna try to stop us, and she said she'll do what she can to help us plan it out... On the condition that Altair and Spark hang back. And I don't disagree. I hate to do this to them, after three weeks, but I'm not taking that risk -- not with pirates hanging around.

Neither of them is gonna be happy with me about it, so... this should be fun. And to say nothing of how Rae's gonna react to seeing Altair again...

Basically? Wish me luck.

**[END RECORDING]**

Rae was pretty quiet, most of the way to the ship. She said this was the safest time for us to be going through the city, this time of week. Spark and I had been lucky; if we'd come in today, that late in the afternoon, we wouldn't have made it down the road.

Still, the stillness of the town bothered me. If I didn't know better, it would've felt peaceful -- the dim light before the twin suns came up; last night's rain on the gravel, muddy, smelling very much _not_ like Earth, but still undeniably like _spring._ But it was unsettling, this morning. Maybe it was the silence, too early for birds or golden squirrels or people, but too late for most of the lizards. Maybe it was the fact that Rae hadn't said more than five sentences to me that morning, after she got up. Maybe it was the pirates.

...Okay, it was the pirates.

Rae looked preoccupied too -- but in hindsight, we _definitely_ weren't thinking about the same things. Her eyes were fixed on Stratos, the moon they'd colonized a century ago, while the planet was being terraformed. I could just make it out between the trees.

"You okay?" I asked.

"Mm-hmm. I'm fine."

Obviously, I didn't believe that for a second.

After a full thirty seconds of fighting herself about it, she gave up pretending, and sighed. "I should be over the moon about this. I'm nervous -- but I shouldn't be, and I kind of hate myself for it."

"What's there to hate yourself for?" I chuckled. "You haven't seen Altair in the better part of a _decade._ You're not the same person he remembers, and you don't know what to expect. I've been there."

"Yeah, _about that,_ because you didn't really finish telling me everything last night..."

"In my defense, you distracted me."

 _"You threw a pillow at my head._ I think we can both agree that you did this to yourself." Her boots squeaked on the mud -- slipping a little. "But seriously, Cap... What was he like, when he came back?"

"Well, I wasn't there, when he got to Ixor VII -- but I guess he wasn't happy that everyone thought he was dead." I grinned. "It took a while before he actually believed anybody about having been gone for six years. As far as he knew, it had only been a few weeks. First thing he asked was whether Spark and I had made it there okay... I'm just glad that Aunt Nora was there to help; they would've had a _hell_ of a time getting through to him without her."

"No _kidding._ But I'm surprised they let her -- it isn't really..." Rae shook her head. "Wait, don't tell me. They didn't want to let her, but she didn't give them a choice."

"Yup."

"Sometimes I think they made her Commandant because they're afraid of letting her leave the Academy. And I don't blame them -- that woman terrifies me."

"You, the PDF at large, the _President..."_ I grinned. "But no, you're right. Nora _immediately_ decided that she was in charge of getting everything settled. So that's one of the reasons Altair's back to teaching."

"That poor man. I've never heard him express true gratitude for anything but the fact that _he wasn't doing that anymore."_

"Well, you know how he is, he's gotta keep busy, and they weren't gonna let him go back into the field -- and it's better for _everybody_ if Nora's the one keeping an eye on him. She was absolutely _not_ happy with me about all of this." I paused as the crunch of gravel turned into that stiff grass, suddenly _very_ glad my boots were waterproof. "And hey, if it makes you feel any better... from what Altair told me a couple of days ago, you're not the only one feeling nervous."

 _"Pfft._ Doc, nervous? He doesn't know the meaning of the word. Or at least he'll never admit to it."

"Well, he didn't say that _exactly,_ but it was the general idea. I mean, he doesn't know much; I couldn't ever bring myself to tell him much. But it's enough that he knows things'll probably be a little different now. And with how he feels about change... I mean, the hell he raised when they tried to move us to Station Two--"

"Uh-huh. And remember what he told you when we got to stay?" Rae cracked a smile. _"Yo_ _u can get just about anywhere by complaining to the right people."_

"He's still mad about it, I bet. _Nobody_ passive-aggressively holds onto grudges like Altair." I thought about that for a second. "Except Spark. Probably a learned behavior."

"Oh, no. It's _gotta_ be hereditary. I know they didn't pick it up from _you."_

"Hey, I wasn't exactly _trying_ to be an absentee guardian, okay?"I think I knew she didn't mean anything by it, even then -- but before I could think about it, I'd stopped myself in front of her. "I fought the PDF every step of the way, took them to _court_ over how little time they let me spend with Spark. And when I _did_ leave, I _never --"_

"I didn't... I didn't mean that." She smiled sadly. "Kid's lucky to have you in their corner. More than you or I ever got."

"...Yeah. Sorry."

"Don't worry about it. I'd still be angry about it too, if I were you." She looked up at the trees, then over to where the ship was waiting for us. "She's still going, huh? As much as you've put the poor thing through, I'm almost surprised."

"Aw, come on. Takes more than a couple of hits with a death ray to bring down the _Firebrand."_ I grinned and opened the hatch. "We did a good job with this one."

She followed me inside, hesitating on the steps for a second. "We sure did."

I can't even imagine how _weird_ it must have been for her to come onboard after so long. Last time she'd seen it, I'd had it set up for solo flights; I didn't have a team back then, but then again, I hardly ever left the planet, and the worst I was ever up against were small-time crooks. And now there were calculating machines, extra consoles, the control panels... And that was just on the bridge.

They'd been busy while I was gone, looked like, but Buster was the only person on the bridge. He was sitting at my console, going over some merc-print in his personal database. When we came in, he was writing something down in shorthand -- doesn't look like much more than scribbles and loops to me, but I'm not a journalist, so what do _I_ know?

"Welcome back." He stood up kind of stiffly -- I guessed that whatever he was reading, he'd been pretty deep into it for a while -- then snapped to attention and gave me his _most obnoxious_ PDF salute. "Bridge is all yours, Captain."

I rolled my eyes at that. "That hasn't gotten any funnier over the past eight years, y'know."

"See, that's where you're wrong. It gets better every time." Buster relaxed into a smug smile, obviously pleased with himself, and then extended a hand to Rae. "So you must be the infamous Rae Roman. I'm Buster. --Wait, where's Spark?"

"Asleep. According to them, they're not leaving that bed until someone makes them." And I didn't blame Spark for it, either -- I love my ship, it's one of my favorite places in the Galaxy, but _man,_ I get a little tired of the cramped space. "So are you doing some light reading?"

"Research. As soon as you said _pirates..._ Figured I'd get to work, get a handle on who we're dealing with."

"Find anything interesting?" Rae asked in amusement. "Bet I can help you fill in any missing parts."

"Uh, some. It would probably help if you could identify them." He grinned sheepishly. "I've got information on a few groups on-world, but well... you know how the PDF databases are, and I can't say my own notes are any better-organized right now."

"Sure." She looked around the bridge then, her eyes wandering to the entry to the upper deck. "Where's everybody else?"

"Down in engineering," Buster answered, gesturing toward the corridor -- the hatch was closed, which was a little unusual for us. "Something's up with the navigation calculators, I guess. I'm staying out of the way -- there are currently three _very_ tense and _very_ opinionated mathematicians down there, and..."

He was cut off by a shockwave of pure _rage,_ emanating from somewhere down the corridor -- and then, Rae just about fell over. No warning, nothing -- she might have hit her head if I hadn't been right there.

 _::Well, if you have a_ better _idea, I'm willing to hear it. But until you've got something actually constructive to say instead of just_ complaining _about how I'm doing my job--::_

"What happened?" It felt like Buster crossed the bridge in an instant, medkit in hand before I even had the chance to ask. "Is she okay?"

Rae groaned under her breath, leaning on me to keep her balance. "I'm fine. But _God,_ I forgot how much that hurts -- Stygians and their damn _emotions."_

"Yeah, that's... that's Juniper. Somebody must have made xem pretty mad..."

"I _do_ have a better idea, actually." To Altair's credit, it sounded like he wasn't escalating the situation -- but I was willing to bet that Constance had intervened more than once this morning. _"Check the documentation."_

 _::What documentation? Have you_ seen _the way things get done around here? We didn't even do routine maintenance back on Ixor VII, because_ you _had to make a big deal over a_ goose. _It's a miracle we've gotten anywhere.::_

"It was a _nuisance._ I'd like to see _you_ get anything done with an angry waterfowl in your workspace -- and it tried to bite Spark. It's lucky to have been put out on the grass."

Rae was in some pretty serious pain -- I've _never_ forgotten what it felt like to get hit with that much psychic energy after a long time -- but she still managed a weak laugh. "Do I want to know?"

"Probably not," I replied. "It was a weird day. --You feeling alright?"

"I think so. It just hit me pretty hard, that's all. It's been a while since..."

The hatch opened then, cutting her off with its characteristic hiss. I remember thinking that it sounded a little more... _angry_ than usual, and attributing it to the tension on the engineering deck -- and then Altair walked _right past us._

 _"No documentation."_ He was at the communications terminal now, grumbling to himself. "I _built_ the damned thing, and the database this ship runs on. Of _course_ there's documentation. Wasn't going to let the kid run around without a baseline for the control systems."

In spite of myself, I smiled a little. "Hey, Doc --"

He didn't notice -- just looked over at Buster in slight annoyance. "When was the last time anyone indexed the database? This is ridiculous."

"I dunno. Probably a while ago." Buster shrugged. "Who knows what the PDF was doing with this ship while we were gone?"

"Don't remind me -- replacing the guidance systems with their own was bad enough. God help us if they start replacing the calculating machines."

Rae tried to say something, but nothing came out. It took me a bit to gauge her expression. She was shaking, everything unsteady and maybe ten seconds from breaking apart -- but she was just _beaming,_ the biggest smile I've ever seen.

Buster sighed in resignation -- over the last three weeks, we'd had plenty of chances to get on each other's nerves, and he'd learned _very quickly_ that poking a cranky engineer is a bad idea. "Okay, I'll bite. What's wrong with the way they build calculating machines?"

The tape punch woke up then, and I immediately recognized the sound; he'd been looking for the initialization program. And I was confused -- either of us could probably punch the paper tape by hand faster than that machine. Wasting that much time to prove a point was kinda petty, even for him...

"The PDF doesn't build calculating machines, Mr. Kincaid. They build _glorified cat toys."_ He turned around and saw us there -- all of the irritation gone in a split-second. "...Rae."

"Hey, Doc." She sniffled, then laughed at herself. "You have _no idea_ how much I've missed you."


	7. Chapter 7

I guess now’s a good time to explain something I’ve noticed about Altair, over the years. In all this time, I think I’ve only seen him speechless a handful of times -- and it hasn’t ever stopped being _completely unnerving._ It isn’t even the way he freezes up -- it’s that everything else does, too.

Now, look, I’ve seen more of the universe than your average guy from California, but that doesn’t mean I know the first thing about how it works. There are people _infinitely_ more qualified than me to explain that kind of stuff -- and just between us, none of them are PDF scientists. But I feel pretty confident about saying that _everything_ froze up. Nobody moved. The ship fell silent, the engines and calculating machines ground to a halt.

Sound, light, space, time, _the fabric of reality itself…_ They all stopped, and waited.

“Well?” Rae chuckled. “You just gonna stand there, Doc, or are you gonna give me a hug?”

She was kidding, obviously. He’s really never been the hugging type. The only people I’d ever really seen him regularly make exceptions for were Spark and Aunt Nora… But I think Rae got the answer she was hoping for.

“I… I thought I’d never see you again,” she said quietly.

“You can’t get rid of me _that_ easily.”

“Bet the PDF have learned that the hard way.” Rae took a deep breath, and her entire demeanor just… lightened. “How’s the research going?”

“You could say that.” Altair cleared his throat. “Well, it hasn’t been easy to convince them that it’s worth pursuing anymore. But it just isn’t as much fun without the two of you squabbling in the next room. It’s too quiet.”

“So that’s why you were antagonizing Juniper,” I laughed. “Can’t handle it when everyone’s getting along too well for too long, huh?”

“I didn’t antagonize xem. If I had, I wouldn’t have settled for that reaction. But I might have… poked a little.”

Rae suppressed a smile -- or, tried, anyway. “I’m not surprised. --Shouldn’t you take that down there? Seemed pretty important.”

“You’re right.” He looked over the printout for a second, then frowned. “Something doesn’t look right about it. Hasn’t been accessed in a while; maybe the records are starting to degrade. Hm.”

Constance heard us coming, and met us outside of the engineering section. It was eerily quiet, without the machines running; they were always the first thing to come online, and the last to turn off. “Hey. I think we’re making progress…” She trailed off when she saw Rae -- and smiled. “Rae. It’s good to see you. I’m Constance -- we’ve met before, but you probably don’t remember…”

“No, I do.” Rae returned the smile, but it was strained. “You’re a hard woman to forget. And you’ve got a hell of a job, keeping these two from killing each other. Sure it hasn’t been easy.”

“They’re not _that_ bad,” Constance laughed. “Maybe a little irritable sometimes.”

Altair raised an eyebrow. “I’m choosing not to take that personally.”

“Calm down, Doc, I was teasing. I wouldn't recognize you without it. --But maybe now that you and Juniper have both had a minute to cool off…”

“I think I know what you’re going to suggest, and… no. _However,_ I have what we need to reinitialize the calculating machines. We’ll have to start from scratch, basically, but that’s fine.”

“Lot of work. Let me see that.” She perused the printout for a minute. “Hmm. A few more steps than how I usually do it -- I wonder whether I’ve been missing something I should be clearing. Might explain why it’s acting funny.”

“I doubt it,” I put in. “You know these things inside and out, Con. Probably just a fluke.”

“Yeah, maybe.” She shrugged. “Let’s find out.”

Juniper was working at the far end of the section, studying a roll of printouts.

_::This one’s basically forgotten how calculus works. The one next to it always returns zero. How are every single one of them breaking at the same time?::_

“Not sure,” Constance answered, “but we’ll get it figured out.”

“Passing through the magnetic field, maybe?” Rae suggested. “I think I remember you saying something about it, Cap…”

“Sure, but we fixed that _ten years ago._ Unless a couple of mice got in here and chewed through the Faraday cage, I think we can rule that out.” I considered that -- the ship _had_ been sitting dormant for a long time, before we’d taken off. “Second thought… maybe I should actually check that.”

“One thing at a time, Proton,” Altair reminded me. “Let’s see what happens here first.”

_::Magnetic radiation wouldn’t do anything to a calculating machine,::_ Juniper said. _::Not unless it’s entirely analogue -- and these are all transistor machines.::_

I held back a smirk -- waiting for the inevitable. But to my complete and utter surprise, it was Constance who replied.

“They’re neither, actually. Well, sort of a hybrid,” she said. “Some of it _is_ analogue -- the oscillators and counters, for one thing. No dedicated components, completely modular -- turns out that if you pass data between a few modules and let each one work on part of the problem, you get it solved faster.”

_::So the most important part of the calculating machine is the most prone to error.::_ Juniper shook xyr head. _::No wonder this is where they put the best field mathematician they had.::_

“Funny you say that.” Constance smiled wryly. “Only reason I’m good at my job is because I spent six years racing these guys’ big brothers. Learned ’em inside and out -- I know everywhere they can trip up, what stuff I have to double-check, how I have to program it. And I know how they think.”

For a second, Constance looked very far away, staring up at the calculating machine’s panels. I could hazard a guess as to what she saw in her head -- a whole wall of them, ticking and chattering at the speed of thought. An open module, maybe -- circuitry waiting to be re-arranged, made into something completely different.

Sure, Constance had gone head-to-head with Chaotica’s calculating machines. Maybe upward of a hundred times, even. She was, without doubt, the fastest and most meticulous field computer the PDF had -- and I’d spent the better part of those six years doing _everything_ I could to make sure she didn’t get reassigned. It had been somewhat selfish of me, obviously; we were friends, we worked well together, and it just wouldn’t have been the same without her. But there was some truth to what I’d told the higher-ups, when they were talking about it. There really _wasn’t_ anyone else who could keep pace.

And even she had only beaten them once.

“Okay,” she said finally. “We’ve been at this for a couple of hours. I think we need to take a break. And besides… we’ve got something else we need to figure out, too.”

_::Right. Pirates. Fantastic.::_ Juniper rolled xyr eyes. _::I’m starting to think this ship might be cursed.::_

“Nah, it’s not the ship. If anything, it’s me.” I tried to keep my tone light on that one -- but there _was_ some truth in it. At this point, I figured, it was always just a matter of time. “Thankfully, we’re not going in without any intel.”

“Let’s talk about this on the bridge,” Constance suggested. “I can’t speak for the rest of you, but I’m not going to be able to think about anything else until I’m out of this room.”

“Figure it out?” Buster asked as we came out.

“Not yet.” She shrugged. “We’ll get there. Meanwhile, the mission… So, Rae, what do we know?”

“Small group, came in about a year and a half ago. We should’ve been able to hold our own; we’d just gotten ourselves balanced out. Maybe a hundred of them total.”

“I don’t think that’s a small group,” Buster commented. “A small _army,_ maybe…”

“If they were organized, sure,” Rae chuckled. “But they’re all over the place.”

“How are we going to manage that?” Altair sounded like he couldn’t quite get his head around it -- and, I mean… he had a point. The idea of the six of us up against a hundred pirates _did_ sound ridiculous, on the face of it.

“We’ve handled worse,” I assured him. “And that’s when there were only three of us.”

“You… Nevermind. Sometimes, I’m almost glad I wasn’t around to see the trouble you got yourself into.” He paused. “Did you win, at least?”

I laughed nervously -- Buster and Constance were both giving me very concerned looks. “Yeah. Yeah, we did.”

But even now, that victory still felt hollow -- because the only thing that had saved him was chance.

_::We need to make a concrete plan,::_ Juniper pointed out. _::I know all of you know your way around there pretty well, but it’s still a hundred of them, and six -- sorry, seven -- of us. I don’t like those odds.::_

“Yeah, they’re… not ideal.” Rae sighed. “I’ve got a guy on the inside. About twenty of them are local; they’ve been around a while. They might be able to help you get what you came for.”

“How much information does he have?” Buster asked.

“Enough. And it’s not just information, either. He knows how to make himself _absolutely_ indispensable, that’s for sure.”

_::How do you know you can trust him?::_

“Well, I’ve known him a long time. He’s an old soldier; honor and loyalty still mean something to him.”

_::Still… it’s a pretty big ask.::_

“He owes me a pretty big favor.” Rae smiled grimly. “I can catch him before the patrols start, make a plan, and meet with you guys again.”

“You don’t mean to go alone.” The disapproval in Altair’s voice was almost tangible -- the familiarity of it made me smile in spite of myself. “That’s the kind of recklessness I’d expect from… someone else.”

“Hey, I don’t do that anymore, Doc. Con won’t let me.” I grinned. “If it’ll make you feel better, I’ll go with her.”

“It won’t, but… I know better than to try to stop you.”

“I’ll come along, too,” Buster said. “Beats sitting around here, listening to the mathematicians bicker.”

“How long do you think it’ll take to fix the calculating machines?” Rae asked.

_::Two hours.::_ Juniper’s answer was near-immediate. _::If Altair’s right, and it’s the relays, anyway. Good chance.::_

“I think that’s the first time you’ve even acknowledged the possibility,” Altair said dryly. “I’m not sure I like it.”

“Well, patrols are out in three.” Rae exhaled, all the gears in her head spinning, working out the details. “Okay. We’ll go ahead; meet us at the apartment. --You remember the way, right, Doc?”

“It hasn’t been _that_ long. I won’t get us lost.”

“Yeah. Alright. Be careful.” She glanced over at me and Buster. “Ready?”

She waited until we were nearly at the apartment before saying anything else. “Okay, guys, here’s the plan. Go ahead to the apartment and wait; I’ll be back within the hour.”

“What? No.” I shook my head firmly. “We said we were going with you.”

“What Altair doesn’t know won’t hurt him. And Spark’s waiting on us over there; they’re gonna get nervous.”

“They’ll be fine. --Hey.” I caught her arm; she wouldn’t look me in the eye. “This isn’t about them. I know you better than that -- what’s this really about, Rae?”

“I can’t let you get caught. I can’t let anyone even _see_ you… That’s why we need to have a plan -- if they find you… _any_ of you…” She shook her head. “I don’t want to risk it.”

“I don’t get what you’re saying.”

“I’m _saying_ that not everyone is gonna be thrilled that you’re here -- and that while I trust my contact, I don’t trust anybody else. You don’t have all the information here, Proton -- and this place isn’t the same as you left it.”

“You’re right. It isn’t.” I sighed. “Okay, I trust your judgment here. But if Altair asks, I’m not taking responsibility.”

“Fair enough. I’m perfectly willing to deal with the consequences. Nothing I haven’t seen before, y’know.”

“Just… stay safe, okay? Don’t get into any trouble without me?”

“Sure. Same goes for you.”

I unlocked the door with my key, Buster and I hung up our jackets and rayguns -- and found a conspicuous lack of hyperactive Academy cadets in the general vicinity.

“Bit late for them to still be asleep, isn’t it?” Buster noted.

“Long day yesterday.” I ducked into the hallway for a second, down to the guest bedroom. “Hey, we’re back --”

Nope. No Spark. The door to the library didn’t budge, either -- and it locked from this side.

“Uh... Proton, we have a problem.” Buster’s voice was practically shaking -- something was wrong. But I didn’t see what it was right away; only somebody with Buster’s attention to detail would’ve seen it. Spark’s jacket was laying in a corner, at a bit of an odd angle. And not too far away was my pocket radio -- or, what was left of it, anyway. Stepped on, it looked like. Forcefully.

_"Damn it._ This wasn’t… this wasn’t supposed to happen." I took a deep breath and forced all of the panicked thoughts into the farthest part of my mind. Must have been a little out of practice; it wasn’t as effective as I remembered. “We have to go after them.”

“Not yet.”

“What do you _mean,_ not yet?” I demanded. “It couldn’t have been that long ago; we can still catch up --”

“Look -- there’s no damage, no sign that they were hurt, right? However the pirates figured out we were here, I bet they weren’t looking for a cadet. They were looking for _us._ And running in after Spark is probably _exactly_ what they want us to do.” Buster turned over a bit of coil from the radio, then stood up. “Keep your head on straight. I know you’re worried about ’em, but think about it. If they’re looking for us, they’re not gonna hurt the kid.”

“We can’t take the chance. If something happens to them, Buster, I…” The thought stopped halfway, completely disappeared, like the universe itself had decided it shouldn’t be allowed to exist. And I fully agreed with it.

“We need a plan,” he said firmly. “There’s too much we don’t know -- we need to wait for Rae.”

He was right… but that didn’t mean I had to like it. Or, as it turned out, that we were going to have to wait at all. Because someone was coming up the fire escape. Pirates, four of them, each about my height. We could’ve held our own, probably… if they hadn’t been pointing four very large rayguns at us.

“Well, this is a surprise. I thought maybe the kid was bluffing.” One of them looked me up and down with a smug grin. “Captain Proton, huh? Thought you’d be taller.”

“I swear to God, if they’ve been hurt --”

“Oh, relax. Kid’s fine. And they’ll stay that way, if you don’t give us any trouble.”

They pushed us toward the fire escape, still at gunpoint -- two in front, two behind us. At one edge of my vision, I saw my raygun hanging in the closet -- too far to reach -- and at the other, Buster kicked the broken radio a little closer to the middle of the room.

“Well, this feels familiar,” he quipped. “Just like old times.”

“Absolutely.” That came out a _lot_ more confident than I really felt -- but the pirates didn’t need to know that. “But something tells me this is gonna be a bit different than we're used to.”

…I hate it when I’m right.


	8. Chapter 8

Nothing makes you reconsider your life choices quite like being stalked through a labyrinth by an angry lizard.

Usually, I don’t mind the lizards on Planet X. They’re fairly well-tempered, people feed them when they wander into town. Most of them are pretty cute. I had one when I was in college – her name was Susan. She used to hang out on my desk, and I don’t think I would’ve finished my grad thesis without her help.

But this guy was no Susan.

 _“I thought you said the lizards were friendly!”_ Buster whispered furiously. We were breathing shallowly, both searching for any possible way out of here – but the winding passages beneath the Fortress of Doom are hard enough to navigate in the _best_ of situations.

“Most of them _are."_ I know my way around, obviously, but we hadn’t entered from anywhere familiar. The pirates had blindfolded us when they’d dumped us in here; I had nothing to go on.”Let me think for a second. If we can get to the outer edge of the complex…"

“So we just pick a direction and keep going. Great.” Buster pressed an ear against the wall, listening. “How big do you think it is?”

“I dunno, but the pirates must have pissed it off before they sent it in here after us. But we’ll be okay, as long as we can keep it from cornering us.”

“Sounds like you’ve done this before.”

“I have. Kinda. Lizard jousting.”

“…Lizard…” Buster shook his head quickly. "No. Let me guess. _College."_

“Yup. Didn’t think it would actually have a use, though. Well, besides making Altair _really_ nervous.” I exhaled slowly. “Man, once we get out of this, he’s gonna kill me.”

Buster shuddered. “I know who I’d rather be dealing with.”

“Me too – I’ll take my chances with our friend here.” And then, I had an idea. “Buster, you’re gonna _hate_ me, but I think we’ve gotta head right for it.”

“…What. No.”

“They let it in from _somewhere,"_ I pointed out.”That’ll get us close to a way out of here – and into the Fortress."

“You want to run _toward_ the angry reptile that could probably rip our heads off?” he hissed. “Listen, I’ve done a _lot_ of terrifying things on your call, but… I’m not doing that. No way.”

He was serious. He had to be; I hadn’t seen that look in his eyes since the day we’d met. Buster was freezing up – and for the first time in eight years, I wasn’t sure I could drag him out of it.

_Okay, okay. Think. You’ve just gotta reason him out of this. He trusts you; that’s a lot more than you had last time around._

“It sounded pretty big, right? That means it’s not very clever. All we’ve gotta do is split around it and get in its blind spots. Easy.” That didn’t come out as reassuring as I wanted it to, but dammit, I was _trying._ “It’ll just keep going down the passage until it hits the dead end.”

“Why do I feel like you’re just making things up so I’ll agree to this?” Buster took a deep breath and set his jaw – his smile saying that yes, he was scared as hell, but he was gonna trust me on this one. “Alright, you crazy bastard. Let’s hope you’re right.”

We didn’t get very far down the passage before we could feel its footsteps approaching – the ground under us shook from the impact. But that wasn’t how I knew we were in trouble – not only was it undeniably big, but it _stank._ It wasn’t even a meat smell, it was something sharp and acidic. And the sound that echoed down the passage was approximately halfway between a lion and the scream of a bald eagle – uncanny, blood-curdling, and _absolutely_ not a noise that a lizard should be making.

“Hey, Cap?” Buster’s voice had gone eerily calm, considering the circumstances. “Do you know what kind of lizard that is?”

“Not a friendly one.” I grimaced. “Let’s keep moving, we’ve gotta…”

Something caught my attention then – a flash of light, in the corner of my eye. It was a visiplate, part of the surveillance system that spread through the entire Fortress. This was one of the passive ones, kind of like a big mirror. They passed what they saw to the active units, on the edges of the Fortress. It was online, a barely-perceptible blinking light on one edge.

You’d never see it, if you didn’t know what to look for. But I knew exactly what to look for – I’d taken enough of them apart, replaced the failing parts, checked the fuses. And this told me two very important things.

First of all, the light was on the side we were approaching. Here in the middle of the maze, the visiplates were placed farther apart, and only faced in one direction – away from the monitor station. So that gave me a general sense of where to _go,_ if not where we _were._

Second, we were being watched. And they’d see us coming, when we got out.

If we got out.

Of course, as soon as I had the thought, the lizard came screaming around the corner. If you _really_ want a mental image of this thing – which I do _not_ recommend – imagine that somebody engineered a crocodile that walked on two legs and spat acid at anybody who gave it a funny look, okay? And now, imagine that this crocodile had a very angry baby… with a tyrannosaurus. How big do you figure that is?

Not big enough. Double it.

Buster took one look at it, then at me. Neither of us were moving – he was waiting for my signal; I was waiting for an opportunity.

Lizard jousting wasn’t gonna help me here, unfortunately; those had all been running around on all fours. But when I watched that thing swing around that corner, I realized that it wasn’t exactly the most _graceful_ of lizards. It kinda looked like Spark, the first couple of minutes after they rolled out of bed – all unsteady and overcompensating for it.

It saw us immediately, making that horrible noise, whatever it was, and came barrelling at us.

_Three, two, one…_

I gave the signal, and we darted around either side of it. Just like I’d figured, it couldn’t turn around fast enough to catch either of us. From the sound of it, it probably kept going for quite a while before it lost momentum. That’s a guess, obviously, because we kept running until we reached a junction. Buster was leaning right; I grabbed his arm and pulled him hard in the other direction.

“What–”

“This way. I don’t know where we are yet, but I know how we can get closer to figuring it out.” I nodded subtly up at the visiplate, and Buster slowly nodded in understanding.

“Right. So, what? We just follow it all the way out to the station? Or do we go outside, back to the ship for backup?”

“No, I don’t think so. Who _knows_ how long we’ve been in here? They’ve all probably been back to the apartment by now. So either they’re on their way here, or…”

“…Or the pirates were waiting for them, too.”

“I was _gonna_ say that they’re probably mounting a rescue mission. But yeah, back to the station. System’s running; they’re watching. But I don’t think they know that _we_ know that.”

“Or how many times we’ve been down here.” Buster was trying really hard not to smile – even in the dim light, I could see him wrestling with his own optimism. “And we know this place, easy… If we had a way to communicate with everybody else, we could…”

“Hold on, we might.”

“How?” Buster asked. “I don’t have my radio; they took it off me–”

“We can use the radio in the control room,” I said, and waited for the inevitable question – after all, I’d never actually told him where all of the equipment we used had come from. Constance knew, of course – people can keep secrets, but technology can’t. But I’d never mentioned it to Buster, and he’d never asked. “Same frequency range.”

“Might be the first time I’ve ever been glad that we don’t use the PDF’s equipment.”

“Oh, it wouldn’t matter. The PDF’s communications tools are easier to break than picking a lock with a bobby pin,” I answered dryly. “It’d take me twenty minutes, tops.”

“You’re starting to sound like Altair. I don’t like it.”

“That’s hurtful.” The lizard’s roar drifted back to us – far away, but seeming to come from every direction at once. “Hopefully they’ve all been working on a plan already. Something tells me we’re not gonna have a lot of time to discuss it.”

“At least it’s starting to look familiar; these are the active units, right? Two lights?”

“Uh-huh. I think we’re just about – _there."_ I nodded toward the wall to our right – it was subtle, but it wasn’t the same texture as the rest of the tunnel – a little smoother, not _quite_ stone.”See?"

“Thought we’d never get out of here.” Buster grinned at me, a little shaky, _definitely nervous,_ but all in on the plan. After all, it was this or getting eaten by our good buddy back there. “Isn’t it locked?”

“You’d think so, but… I doubt it.” I pushed on the door experimentally – sure enough, it shifted.

The control room was empty, and probably had been left unattended for a while, from the state of things. There was a thin film of dust on all of the visiplate feeds, and when I twisted one of the dials on the control panel, it was _way_ stiffer than it should’ve been. But it didn’t _feel_ like it had been abandoned…

“Smells weird in here,” Buster said. “Like… _not_ dusty. Someone’s been in and out of here pretty recently.”

“I was thinking the same thing. Lights, surveillance feeds, everything looks like it’s just been sitting here. Or… like it’s _supposed to_ look like it’s been sitting here. Maybe it’s…”

“A trap?” The other door slid open, revealing a middle-aged woman and one of the guys who’d brought us here. She looked nice enough at first glance, or at least she wasn’t exactly threatening – soft voice, clothes too loose and impractical for fighting. “Not at all. Consider it a test – and one you passed with flying colors.”

“Thanks,” Buster muttered. “Any reason it had to include nearly getting eaten? And who are you, anyway?”

“Oh, it wouldn’t have eaten you, Mr. Kincaid. My name’s Victoria. I’m the leader of our little group here.” She glanced over her shoulder at her companion – a silent order.

Buster jerked backward as the pirate grabbed his arm. _“Hey–”_

I could’ve intervened. I had enough time, and I could’ve taken him down. But as Buster was dragged off to who-knows-where, I caught a glimpse of at least three other pirates outside the doorway – and I’m pretty good in a fight, but those weren’t great odds.

“Where are you taking him?” I asked quietly.

“Don’t worry about him, Captain. We don’t mean him any harm… As long as you don’t mean to cause any trouble.” The barbed wire in her smile told me that she knew I wouldn’t. “Now, you and I have some things to discuss – why don’t we go somewhere a little more comfortable?”


	9. Chapter 9

**FROM THE PERSONAL LOGS OF CADET DALE JENSEN**

**DAY 23**

**[BEGIN RECORDING]**

Okay. I don't wanna be too loud, in case one of the pirates overhears anything. But I found this recorder, and… I guess this is what you’re supposed to do, right? Keep documenting everything as long as you can. I took a survival strategies prep class before I took my entry exam, and a couple more in the Academy, and they always told us the same thing. They said it was so the rescue crews would have some idea of what happened, if we were unconscious or, y’know, _dead_ – but Proton told me once, it’s not just for them.

I guess I should start with where I am. They put me in my room – and I don’t think that’s a coincidence. The way a couple of them were looking at me… I don’t know. Maybe I’m imagining it.

It looks like nothing’s really changed in here, except for the locks. Can’t get out from the door they brought me in, and I can’t get the other one open, either. But everything else is pretty much how I remember it. Right down to the recorder; it was still on my desk. You’d think nobody’d been in here since I left.

Except for the dust. ’Cause there isn’t any.

Tape’s almost out. I don’t even know what’s on this one. Used to record _everything,_ when I was a kid, because I always saw Proton and Dad with theirs. Talking about robots and algorithms and everything else I didn’t understand when I was eleven. And Cap, reporting back to the PDF from all the trips and adventures… I think I finally know what he was talking about.

_When you’re on your own like that, you record yourself, you write it down, you scratch it into a wall with something sharp,_ he said. That’s not for the PDF, that’s not for the historical record.

It’s because you’re scared.

**[END RECORDING]**

  


**[END TAPE, REWINDING]**

  


_[Note: the following transcript is not part of the official Planetary Defense Force archives. It has been included in this archive to provide as much detail as possible to the historical record.]_

**[BEGIN TRANSMISSION]**

Hey, kiddo. I know I promised I’d be home by now, but something came up, and… it’ll be a couple of days still. Which means your dad’s in charge of the cupcakes this year. Don’t let him forget – and save one for me, alright? Maybe put a couple extra stars on it?

Got something for you, when I get back. Found some cool rocks on Mars that we can put in with the salamanders, and a couple new toys for your turtle. And, obviously, a surprise. Which you’re gonna love, and I’m not gonna tell you about. Because it’s a surprise. And your dad would probably freak out if he knew about it, so…

…He’s probably listening to this with you, huh. Oops. In that case… forget everything I just said.

_Anyway,_ yes, turtle upgrades. Found a bigger motor for him! _And,_ because this ship is really boring, I’ve had lots of time to work on a new circuit design that’ll hopefully get him to stop running into walls.

Tell you what – the day after I get home, as soon as I’ve got my stuff unpacked, we’ll go test this stuff out – and the surprise I’ve got for you, too. We’ll stay up late and _everything._ I know it’s not the way we usually do your birthday, but I bet we’ll –

**[INDISTINCT SHOUTING, RED-ALERT ALARM BLARING IN BACKGROUND]**

Okay. I’ve gotta go now, but… hey. Don’t get into trouble without me.

Love you.

**[END TRANSMISSION]**


End file.
